1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a test system for medical systems of the type having a central control unit to control the system components dependent on received operating commands, in particular for x-ray systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In medical diagnostics, different medical systems such as, for example, x-ray systems or magnetic resonance tomography systems are used in order to acquire data from inside the body of a patient. These medical systems must undergo function tests before their delivery to the customer as well as subsequently at specific time intervals, in order to ensure the correct operation. These tests are presently implemented manually using informal test plans. Test procedures are specified that are test cases for all requirements. A test case includes a sequence of individual operation commands that are entered by the tester into the system via operating units in the temporal sequence specified in the test plans. For example, a digital x-ray system normally includes (as operating units for the image system) a keyboard for the input of key codes, as well as a mouse for the input of screen positions, and, for the x-ray system, a generator console for the input of the acquisition parameters as well as a remote control for the input of the primary functions during an examination. The x-ray system has a central control unit that is networked with all system components, receives the corresponding operating commands from the operating units, and controls the individual components dependent on the received operating commands.
Since the functionality of digital x-ray systems continually grows and the test expenditure super-proportionally increases with the number of the functions, the function tests require an ever-greater expenditure. A further problem in the operation of medical systems exists in the reproduction of error situations that occur during the operation at the client. Thus, in x-ray systems, relevant events during the operation are recorded in log files in order to be able to subsequently analyze occurred errors. The log files are interpreted by the tester, who attempts to reproduce the error procedure via manual generation of the events, by entering corresponding operating commands, in order to then generate significant analysis data. This procedure, however, is very complex in terms of personnel.
A device for remote maintenance of a medical system is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,557 that concerns interactivity with the user of the system. Using screen menus, given occurrence of an incident or a disruption the user of the system can contact a service center connected via a network request service. The printout for the implementation of this service, however, includes only the request or the retrieval of data (for example log files or image data) stored in the system over preceding operation, which are subsequently evaluated in the service center in order to detect a possible error or a possible error function. The user of the system is apprised of this in a report that is transmitted back. Dependent on the type of the service request, the service technician involved in the respective cases in the service center actively participate in a different manner in each case. The information necessary for the evaluation can be either transmitted directly to the service center with the service request or can be retrieved upon the request for service by the service center itself via the network.
European Application 0 697 661 concerns a device for technical diagnosis of errors in a medical device. The medical device is fashioned such that the individual components can respectively implement self-tests independently of one another that can be activated by the connected diagnosis device. This device has a first module with a commercial diagnosis software component and a second module that transmits the translation of service commands (that must be input by specialist experts) to the device components to be diagnosed. The error diagnosis ensues by activation of the self-test of the individual components and evaluation of the results of the self-tests as well as further status information.